About JF

JF – Jerry Flattum

Performer/Songwriter & Writer

Oct 2011 (updates every month)

Dunedin, Florida…headed for LA.

I Am What I’m After

Performer/Songwriter is just a twist on the classic Singer/Songwriter.  Singing is definitely performing, but I love to dance and act as well.  Some might say I’m a clown…I guess we all are.

Singer/Songwriter is also a bit dated, a genre born in the 60s, capturing such artists as Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Simon & Garfunkel.  The Brill building era also featured singer/songwriters like Carole King, Neil Diamond, Neil Sedaka, but generally it’s a sub-category of folk.

Funny, but I don’t think I’ve ever written a folk song.

Genre classifications can really pigeon-hole an artist/band.  Some might like that, others don’t.  I don’t.  Once my current recordings are re-recorded and mastered, I’m hoping to characterize my music as Global Pop/Rock.  World Beat has more of a Reggae, Latino maybe African identity, excluding other global influences.  What gets thrown into Pop and Rock is so utterly chaotic it’s impossible to define them.

Another genre classification I like is “Crossover.”  It’s not an official genre but Billboard Magazine coined the term decades ago to signify artists and songs that “crossover” from one genre to another or more specifically, one chart to another.  It’s got an edge to it.

Roots

Where I’m from is far less important to me than where I’m headed…wherever that might be.  Born but not raised in Minnesota.  I say not raised because although I always had a roof over my head and food in the fridge, I had an absentee father and an alcoholic mother.  I’m not even sure if my brother is alive or not.

Ironically, the first batch of songs I ever wrote was for a musical adaptation of Alice In Wonderland.  To date, I’d say Alice In Wonderland has had the most musical adaptations of any story in the history of humankind.  I don’t remember any titles of songs I wrote.  Kinda makes me sad.

New York is where I really grew up.  The day I drove through the Lincoln Tunnel is the day my green and naive Minnesota existence was laid to rest.  Back in Edina, Minnesota, where I went to high school, we had one black person in a school population of 2500.  I think he was an exchange student.  Never knew him.

In high school I was first influenced by classic Blues artists like B.B. King, Robert Johnson and so many others.  English Blues dominated in the late 60s with John Mayall, Paul Butterfield, and perhaps my most favorite musician of all time–Eric Clapton.  But it was New York where I discovered Black music, everything from Motown to Philly, from Gospel to Rap.

Even though my favorite Classic Rock band was Santana, and I was profoundly influenced by Sergio Mendez, New York Salsa took me to new heights.  I used to love to hang out in Central Park and listen to the Conga jams.  Living on the corner of 106th St. and Amsterdam is where “Duke Ellington Blvd.” was born.   106th St. is also Duke Ellington Blvd.

The first song I ever wrote, that is, one with a title, was “Get It Together,” which was also the title of the movie I wrote it for.  What a bittersweet experience that was.  A month after arriving in New York, I ended up working and living in a film commune on the Lower East Side.  I’ll never forget the day I premiered the song for the entire cast and crew, standing up and playing a beat up electric piano right there in the office.  They loved it, and I was sure I had written my first movie theme song.

Wasn’t long after the director, for whatever reasons, opted for another theme song written by someone else.  I quit the day I found out.

Other places I’ve lived include Phoenix, Las Vegas and, as of Nov. 2011, Dunedin, Florida.  I really want to be in LA.

Got a new song I’m working on.  It’s called, “I Just Got To Get To LA.”

I just got to get to LA.
My life, my love,
all the things I’m dreamin’ of,
are just waitin’ for me, waitin’ for me.
Yeah, just waitin’ for me, waitin’ for me.

Becoming A Writer

After leaving the Indie film company, I ended up at Samuel French Play Publishers during the day and writing the score for my 2nd musical at nite.  None of those songs survived either, since I never wrote the lyrics.  The show, called Homeseekers, ran for 3 weeks at the Nat Horne Theater on 42nd St.  So far, that’s the closest I’ve come to Broadway.  The music was rock, so although I was writing a musical, I never left my rock roots.

Next stop was CBS.  Started out as a clerk/typist in Personnel Benefits, but it was Louis Teicher who hired me to work in Music Operations that really took me to a whole new level in my career.  Got my own office over-looking the Hudson River, one floor above 60 Minutes.  There was nothing to do!  Music Operations had essentially moved to the West Coast.  So, it was in that office–the same office that Barry Manilow worked out of–where I wrote the first draft for Time Travelers In The Celestial Age.

This time I wrote the book and lyrics along with the music, and I officially became a writer.

After CBS I moved upstate New York and formed a duo with my x-wife.  We gigged for 8 years and came within inches of a recording contract with Chrysalis Records.  Sid Bernstein, the infamous agent who brought the Beatles to Shea Stadium and Radio City Music Hall, became our business manager.  Just as we were recording our demo, the “X” decided it was a good time to divorce.  Goodbye Chrysalis Records.

Back to the Twin Cities

Anyone who’s ever been divorced knows how brutal it can be.  The relationship was not only shattered but so was my career.  After working at the Harry Fox Agency for a year, I headed back to the Twin Cities with my tail tucked between my legs.  I saw myself as a failure.

A string of coverbands followed, in conjunction with earning one of the first self-designed BS degrees in Songwriting from the University of Minnesota.  The reason I enrolled in college was because, well, I felt like an idiot.  Failing to find success in New York did not make me feel smart.  Depression now played a regular role in my life, a battle I still fight on a daily basis.

Another stupid mistake landed me a 2nd marriage.  Man, I’m just not the marrying kind.  This one was silly, since we had been together off and on over 10 years, and the actual marriage only lasted one year.  What’s that tell ya?

So…off to Vegas…another big mistake.  I really wanted to go to LA and how I landed in Vegas is something I still can’t reconcile.

Dreamin’ In Las Vegas

At nightmarish as Vegas was, several new songs were born, including “Dreamin’ In Las Vegas.”  Back in the Twin Cities, I honed my writing skills as an Ops/Ed editor and writer for the Minnesota Daily, followed by several freelance articles.  In Vegas, I covered the film scene and the Strip as a freelance writer, writing for Callback, a local Vegas rag, several websites, and my first national publication, Script Magazine.

It was a hell of a thrill to interview G. Marq Roswell for Script Magazine.  It even took me to Santa Monica, my future home.

I was also hired to write my first screenplay, 7/11 Pair O’ Dice Road.  Wrote it in 3 weeks at exactly 120 pages.  Got paid $7500.  Thanx Marilee Lear (one of Vegas’s top casting directors and married to the Lear Jet fortune).

GatorLand

Here I am, living in the land of prehistoric birds and reptiles, absolutely determined to get the hell out and get to LA.  Yeah, I know…why did I go East when I should’a gone West.    Another one of my songs is, “Goin’ Down The Wrong Road.”

Why I’m here is a long story, and a tragic one.  You’ll read about it later, maybe in a book.

I have several ventures in progress, anyone of them could prove to be the ticket to ride.  Projects include the redesign of my website and splintering into multiple sites for greater clarity and focus.

The most important endeavor is re-recording and mastering my songs in preparation for commercial release and licensing.  On my site are 40 recordings in Pre-Production.  Jugglers is the title of my first CD.  I’ve also uploaded the recordings to SoundClick, SoundCloud, ReverbNation, Facebook and next to do is MySpace.

Once the recordings are ready, I’ll hit the streets with a sign on my back that says, “Songs For Sale.”  What that really means is a quest for a major label artist deal.  I really want to go on tour.  But, to pull that off I might have to license a few tunes, you know, place songs in film, TV or commercials.

It’s all about money and connections, right?

Meanwhile I created  the Entertainment Cyberscope (EC), a portal & blog for all things Behind-the-Scenes in entertainment.

I’m rebuilding the EC on its own dedicated domain:  entertainmentcyberscope.com.  I’ll be using the “Listings” Theme designed by Woo Themes, a directory and database based theme that will showcase the EC in a brighter and more entertaining light.  With financing, the right team, and sophisticated software and database solutions, the EC will become a virtual world and search engine combo, proving to be both a comprehensive information source and advertiser haven.

As of Nov. 2011, I plan on entering the MIDEM 2012 Startups/Applications Competition, with the MIDEM conference taking place in Cannes, France in 2012.  I might not make the deadline.

I have a column on Technorati called “Convergence In Entertainment.”  Convergence In Entertainment is also the title of my first eBook,  exploring the convergence of technology and entertainment, and redefining the question, “What is entertainment?” in the Digital Age.  Plans include taking full advantage of ePublishing technology, and turning the book into an interactive multimedia work available across multiple formats.

That’s it.  Anything else ya wanna know send me an email at jerryflattum@gmail.com or use the Contact form on this site.

Oh yeah, I love animals.  I have a new kitty.  Her name is Chakra.  I have 3 ferrets:  Natara, Vya and Tang.  They’re all named after yoga poses.  I practice yoga everyday.

Talk to ya soon.

…and no more mistakes, OK?

– JF